Cost of Nortel integration dogs Ciena

Optical networking vendor Ciena saw its sequential loss narrow slightly during the first quarter of its fiscal 2011, but the ongoing costs associated with the acquisition and subsequent integration of Nortel's Metro Ethernet Network (MEN) business continued to impact the firm.

Posting its tenth straight quarter of losses, the firm this week announced losses of $79m (£48.8m), compared to $53m this time last year.

Sales increased 4% sequentially and over 140% year-on-year to $433m, reflecting the impact of the sizeable Nortel unit, which was sold at auction in November 2009.

However, president and CEO Gary Smith said that a year after the two companies initially hooked up, the major integration milestones were now behind them.

"[We] are now operating from a signle, unified foundation from which to maximise the operating leverage in the business. We have technology leadership across our portfolio and a broader market footprint, and consequently we are experiencing strong momentum," he said.

Ciena is now targeting second quarter sales of between $415m and $435m.

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